University of Sheffield

Confirmed Keynote Speakers: Prof. Stephen Campbell (Johns Hopkins); Prof. Lyndal Roper (Oxford); Prof. Emma Smith (Oxford); Prof. Feisal Mohamed (CUNY)

The Society for Renaissance Studies organised four panels at the English Shared Futures conference, which ran from 5th – 7th July 2017 in Newcastle. Rachel Willie reports on the event.

The Fellowships Committee is pleased to announce Simon Egan and Jonathan Reimer as the winners of this year's Postdoctoral Fellowships Competition (2017-18).

This event celebrates one of the RCM’s greatest treasures, the ‘Anne Boleyn Music Book’, which is one of the most significant books of Renaissance music in Britain. The book contains what appears to be the authentic signature of Anne Boleyn, who may have acquired it while serving as a maid of honour in the household of Margaret of Austria, with whom she moved to live at the French court when Margaret married Louis XII. It was acquired by the Royal College of Music at its foundation in 1883, when the book was part of the vast collection of about 5,000 volumes of music acquired from the recently disbanded Sacred Harmonic Society. The book is modest in size (about the size of a paperback book), beautifully hand-written, and contains music by some of Europe’s most famous composers. It has recently been disassembled, restored and rebound, allowing far-reaching new research to be carried out through examination of its paper, decorations and scribal hands and for fresh research on its musical contents; a magnificent facsimile edition, complete with scholarly essays and detailed critical apparatus is also currently in production.

7.30pm, The Rymer Auditorium, Department of Music, University of York

An evening of nostalgia, wonderment and silliness

In the film industry’s silent era, many films of both verve and variety were made that adapted Shakespeare’s plays for popular audiences. Come and sample these rare, surviving old films in an evening that takes us an engaging tour of some fascinating, touching and entertaining Shakespearean moments from early film history. The evening will be animated by some wonderful live music, by performance interjections from live actors and by lively commentary from Judith Buchanan.

This blog post was written by Nicole Mennell, PhD candidate at the University of Sussex. It originally appeared on Sussex's Centre for Early Modern and Medieval Studies' website.